01 Do You Believe in Magic - The Children of Merlin (41 page)

Tris spoke first. “I know. Two
of them, working together. What do you think it means?”

Brian turned to Maggie. “Did
your attacker want something more than just sadistic fun?”

Maggie swallowed once. “He... he
wanted me to join their group. Or he’d kill me.”

“Bastard,” Tris muttered. “Wish
I’d made him suffer more.”

“So there’s a group.” Brian
looked like he was about to say something more, but shut his mouth
abruptly. He rose. “We should get back to The Breakers as soon as
we can tomorrow. I don’t like leaving Drew on her own with the
children.”

“I got another load of mustangs
to take down to LA,” Maggie apologized.

“We can pick up your truck if we
can get a lift to Fallon,” Tris said. “We’ll come back and load up
and be off. This time I can drive.”

“I don’t want you two out here
on your own.” His father pulled a tiny cell phone from the inside
pocket of his jacket. “I’ll have someone bring the truck over.
We’ll caravan back together.”

“I’d like to have that old
rusted truck out at Maggie’s hauled back to the shop,” Tris said.
“Grandpa deserves some restoration.”

His father chuckled and nodded.
“Can do.” He turned back at the door. “Good job, son.” He glanced
to Maggie. “Good job all the way around.”

Maggie looked up to Tris and saw
some of the anger that always lurked beneath his surface melt away.
“Thanks,” he said after a second. “This mean the truce is
extended?”

His father’s face, an older
version of the classic Tremaine features, got a look of wry
apology. “I’d say it’s well on its way to a permanent peace
agreement.”

“Just for the record, I didn’t
beat up that paparazzo. He’d moved in on another photographer
trying to get shots of Brenda Foxfield. They’re apparently very
territorial.”

“And I assumed the worst about
you. Can you forgive me?”

“Might be the other way around.
God knows I provoked you every chance I could.”

“So, it sounds like a deal,”
Maggie interrupted. “Now can you two stop the making up long enough
for Tris to get some sleep?”

“Oh, I doubt he’ll get much of
that,” his father said, flipping the phone to his ear as he closed
the door behind him.

Tris gathered Maggie into his
arms. “The old man is more perceptive than I thought.” He kissed
her tenderly. “Thanks for taking a chance on me.”

“Hey, I ride rodeo. Taking
chances is a way of life. Besides, it felt right.” She arched her
neck so he could kiss it. “Down to my bones.”

“Or maybe down to your DNA,”
Tris whispered as he popped the snaps on her shirt and she pressed
her breast into his hand. “Always knew my parents had magic. Now I
kinda think we have magic, too. Maybe a couple kinds.”

He stopped any answer she might have
made with kisses.

#####

About Susan Squires:

Susan Squires
is
a
New York Times
bestselling author
known for breaking the rules of romance writing. She has published
five novels with Dorchester Publishing and nine with St. Martin’s
Press, along with three novellas in anthologies. Whatever her time
period or subject, some element of the paranormal always creeps in.
She has won multiple contests for published novels and reviewer’s
choice awards.
Publisher’s
Weekly
named
Body Electric
one of the
most influential massmarket books of 2003 and
One with the Shadows,
the fifth in her vampire Companion Series, a Best Book of
2007.
Time for
Eternity,
the first in her DaVinci time
travel series, received a starred review from
Publisher’s Weekly.

Susan has a Masters in English literature from UCLA
and once toiled as an executive for a Fortune 500 company. Now she
lives at the beach in Southern California with her husband, Harry,
a writer of supernatural thrillers, and three very active Belgian
Sheepdogs, who like to help her write by putting their chins on the
keyboarddddddddddddddddddddddd.

Visit Susan on
Facebook, follow her on Twitter, or check out her website at
http://www.susansquires.com.

Watch for the
next
Children of
Merlin
novel,
He’s a Magic Man,
coming
soon.